The Favourite Golf Courses of the World

[Tony_Muldoon]

The Favourite Golf Courses of the World 1908.

I don’t recall ever seeing this before but Richard Latham discovered it when researching his fine book, The evolution of the links at The Royal County Down Golf Club.
He discovered it in Golf Illustrated and “Apparently, 230 professional and 314 top amateur golfers were asked and their votes counted.”  The editorial that accompanied it referred to Irish courses thus “out of 15 named, no less than five are in the first 27, a proportion that no other country can better”.

1 St Andrews
2 Prestwick
3 Sandwich
4 Deal
5 Hoylake
6 North Berwick
7 Sunningdale
8 westward Ho
9 Portmarnock
10 Formby
11 Newcastle Co Down
12Rye
13 Portrush
14 Lahinch
15 Carnoustie, Luffness New, Woking
18 Gullane, Huntercombe
20 Brancaster, Littlestone, Lytham and St Anne’s
23 Dollymount, Macrihanish, Walton Heath
26 Harlech, Muirfield.


From this I conclude that, judging by their relative positions today, subsequent work by Simpson ruined Rye, Mackenzie screwed up Littlestone and Colt made a mess of Dollymount.

[Bill_McBride]

Muirfield at the bottom of that list is also strange.

[Tom_Doak]

Bill:  That was the first version of Muirfield, the one Andrew Kirkcaldy called "an auld water meddie".  It's the pre-Colt Portrush as well.

I am surprised to see North Berwick and Sunningdale rated so highly in 1908, and surprised to see Walton Heath rated so low -- I had thought it was respected pretty much from its birth.

[Sean_A]

I don't know if it is surprising, but the fall of Westward Ho! was the first thing I noticed.  Of course, these old geezers weren't right about everything!

Ciao

[Rich Goodale]

Looks like a typical "age before beauty" sort of list.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Given its inaccessibility at the time, I think it is interesting to see Lahinch so high...

[Rich Goodale]

Ally

Lahinch can't have been that inaccessible.  Ater all, Old Tom Morris travelled over there by horse and buggy and ferry boat and another horse and buggy to design the course when he was in his mid 70's.....

Rich

[Ally Mcintosh]

Ally

Lahinch can't have been that inaccessible.  Ater all, Old Tom Morris travelled over there by horse and buggy and ferry boat and another horse and buggy to design the course when he was in his mid 70's.....

Rich

We can travel the world by horse and cart if we so choose Rich. It doesn't mean it will be an easy journey.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

“out of 15 named, no less than five are in the first 27, a proportion that no other country can better”.

I am surprised see a simple grammatical error in a publication of 1908. No fewer, not no less!

[Rich Goodale]

Ally

Lahinch can't have been that inaccessible.  Ater all, Old Tom Morris travelled over there by horse and buggy and ferry boat and another horse and buggy to design the course when he was in his mid 70's.....

Rich

We can travel the world by horse and cart if we so choose Rich. It doesn't mean it will be an easy journey.

Agreed, Ally, but if a place is inaccessible (your word), any journey to it will not only be not easy, it will be infinite!

[Philip Gawith]

Huntercombe no 19 - makes you proud!

It is interesting that of the 26 I think only 4 are inland - Sunningdale, Woking, Huntercombe and Walton Heath. Formby is a bit of a hybrid. Not so surprising I don't suppose if one considers c 1901 as the date when strategic architecure came inland.

[Peter Pallotta]

Bill M, Tom D - re Muirfield. I too was struck by how low it appeared on the list. You're probably familiar with this -- in the 1909 series in American Golfer on "Famous British Courses", this is what the British Correspondent writes:

Now then, let us consider the Muirfield course, which is the chief business of this article. It has been altered two or three times since it was first laid out in 1892, and some important changes have indeed been made within the last year. Most likely finality has now been reached. There can be no doubt that Muirfield has great merits as a testing course, merits which are not always appreciated at their true value. There are few courses in existence which call for straighter play and more thoroughly good second shots than this one. But the course has faults as well, and circumstances have combined to make it the least popular of all the championship courses. Golf at Muirfield can be most interesting and enjoyable; but it is extremely flat; looks far more of a made course than any of the other championship greens, and it is lacking in some of the characteristics of well-known seaside links. There are few big sandhills or other natural hazards here. Instead there are stone walls, damp boggy patches, and pits. The place has suffered considerably from rabbits, which have a great liking for it and thrive exceedingly there..."

Interesting that it was the least favourite course on the rota 100 years ago...and that 100 years later it still isn't loved all that much....as if our tastes in golf courses haven't changed one bit (but how can that be?)

Peter

[Tommy Williamsen]

I don't know if it is surprising, but the fall of Westward Ho! was the first thing I noticed.  Of course, these old geezers weren't right about everything!

Ciao

I am also a little puzzled by the fall of Westward Ho!  In most of the lists of best or favorite courses compiled 100 years ago, Westward Ho! ranks above some very big names.  I love the course but do not put it in the same category as Portush, County Down, or Portmarnock, which follow it in this ranking.  Did they see something we don't?  Or have tastes changed to dramatically?  The course itself really has not changed all that much since Fowler did his redesign.

[Sean_A]

I don't know if it is surprising, but the fall of Westward Ho! was the first thing I noticed.  Of course, these old geezers weren't right about everything!

Ciao

I am also a little puzzled by the fall of Westward Ho!  In most of the lists of best or favorite courses compiled 100 years ago, Westward Ho! ranks above some very big names.  I love the course but do not put it in the same category as Portush, County Down, or Portmarnock, which follow it in this ranking.  Did they see something we don't?  Or have tastes changed to dramatically?  The course itself really has not changed all that much since Fowler did his redesign.

Tommy

I am probably not the right guy to answer, but I think RND was held in higher esteem in the old days because:

1. It was the first English seaside course of any stature.  History always counts for something among raters whether they believe it to be true or not. 

2. JH Taylor was a man of great importance in the world of English golf back in the day. 

3. I think that RND had an advantage as a championship course because of its unusual length for its day - this surely would have added to the prestige of the course. 

4. Many of the courses we revere so highly now have been radically altered over the years.  RND is relatively untouched since Fowler's work.  I think the times have just slowly passed the course by because it never gained Open status - I wonder why?   

5. The uniqueness and the variety of the natural hazards can't be overlooked - even today.  Though, I have to believe that the rushes are a love them or hate them sort of deal. 

Ciao